Mumbai estate agent murder: How 'jaanu' in SMS led cops to murderer

Estate agent Sanjay Chauhan's wife who received the SMS from accused, grew suspicious as he had never spoken to her this way; police say he was murdered in Roha over a property dispute

An SMS sent from murdered real estate agent Sanjay Chauhan's phone to his wife, raised suspicions in her mind, as he had never spoken to her that manner.

The message also helped police get to the accused. Police also found similarities between the Sheena Bora murder case and the murder. Chauhan was strangulated like Bora was, and his body was thrown on railway tracks at Roha. It was dumped by the accused, Pravin Thakur, and two of his associates. Police said that the murder took place due to a property documents matter.

The message Pallavi received from Chauhan’s phone that made her suspicious, as he had never spoken to her that manner

Chauhan had bought some property documents related to an SRA project at Babrekar Nagar in Kandivli west from Thakur. He had found that people listed in the documents, had been rejected from it. They kept coming to him asking the reasons for this. Chauhan realized Thakur had cheated him and insisted that he (Thakur) resolve the matter or return his money.

Accused Pravin Thakur

Police said on January 19, Chauhan left his house around 9.30 am, and around 11 am he got a call from Thakur to come to Dadar’s Swami Narayan Temple. He met Thakur there around 12. The accused took Chauhan to Roha from Dadar in a Honda city. Before the journey they gave him some spiked tea, and he fell unconscious. Later they strangulated Chauhan in the car and dumped his body near the railway tracks at Roha station, to make it appear that he committed suicide.

Sanjay Chauhan (left) leaves behind wife Pallavi (right) and a son

Wife’s suspicionChauhan's wife Pallavi called him around 1 pm on January 19 but the number was unavailable. She called his office around 3 pm and learnt that he was busy in a meeting. Around 7 pm she called him again but there was no reply, and an hour later when she called, the phone was switched off.

She felt suspicious, as Chauhan had never talked to her in such a way. The next morning she lodged a missing complaint at Charkop police station.

That day Thakur met her and said that Chauhan’s cell phone was switched off. She found this suspicious, and alerted the cops.

Police interrogated him and found that Thakur, with his two associates Nabi Sheikh and Venky, had killed Chauhan due to the property documents matter. Police said that Thakur was fed up of Chauhan as he kept asking him to solve the matter.